To manage Node.js application processes in production on IBM i, we recommend PM2 Runtime. As PM2’s official documentation states, PM2 “…allows you to keep applications alive forever, to reload them without downtime and facilitate common DevOps tasks.”

PM2 is free, open source, and easily installed using npm, the package manager for Node.js and JavaScript. Its features include:

Starting an application as a daemon (using myapp.js as an example, pm2 start myapp.js)

Listing the application processes that it manages (pm2 list)

Providing detailed information on processes (pm2 show myapp)

Ending a process (pm2 stop myapp)

To install PM2 on IBM i systems, we recommend the PM2 Installation Guide from Liam Allan, a Seiden Group Node.js consultant (as well as an active independent consultant and IBM i community member).